My Hatch: The good, the bad, and the fluffy butts (LOTS OF PICS!)

[lemurchaser]

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS PHOTOS OF BAD AND GOOD ASPECTS OF HATCHING! This includes embryo pictures, a sick chick, a birth deformity, and lots of healthy chick pictures and hatching pictures. There's nothing really graphic, but I didn't want to surprise anyone.

It's been a hatch fraught with perils, from egg shipping detours, to weak chicks, to dropped eggs. I thought I'd tell the story and share some pictures. I have 19 more in the hatcher and another 24 in the bator, so the story continues...

Here's my hatch story:

Eggs arrive via priority mail. Hooray!!!

Let them rest and then into the incubator.

I can't get my temps regulated with a turner in there, so I remove it and improvise:

I'm so paranoid about the temps, that I put my weather station remote sensor in the incubator, and the temps are projected on my ceiling at night.

I drop one

and it breaks open. This little one had a beating heart. 5 days along (I think), it would have been an EE.

I finally break down and buy a Brinsea, just in time for the hatch.

"I'VE HATCHED!!!!!!"

And I get some cute little fuzzy butts. 3 Blue/black/splash Rocks, and 2 local farm breed. 2 days later a single BCM hatches.

But one of them is so weak, something isn't right. I make chick ICU, but end up culling it. RIP my beautiful splash Rock.

A few days later, round 2 hatches. Five more BCM's (they were replacements after the really rough shipping of the first set). I get the brooder ready, and Simian (the cat) helps. Since the 2 hatches are a week apart I have the older ones on one side and the younger ones on the other.

One has a crooked beak, so I fix it up with some wire and super-glue (this one will not be allowed to breed, it also has an eye problem, luckily I'm a vet student and we have ophthalmology lab this week, so it'll get seen by a veterinary eye specialist on Thursday).
Before:

After:

The first set is growing, all except for one. That little one is only 2 days younger, but has stayed tiny. I've been force feeding it to try and help it out. When the second set hatched, he moved in with them and was the exact same size at 9 days old. It finally is eating on its own, we'll see how it does. I call him "L'il Bit".

I call the yellow one in front "Monster" because he's huge and feisty. Next to him is "Gentle Ben", a very sweet chick. And then "Lil Bit" in the middle.

The anticipation, anxiety and loss is outweighed by the fun and excitement these little ones bring. I can't wait to see what my next hatch brings me! How can you resist such a face?
I call this one "Big Bit", because its best friends with "Lil Bit" and despite being different breeds, they are almost identical.

Thanks for reading! Happy hatching!

 

[SoCalChick]

Great thread! Thanks for sharing.

 

[carriehelene]

I loved this thread! thanks Lemur, for posting it.

 

[Mahonri]

Great chicks.

 

[Kansaseq]

Thank you for sharing that, Lemur. I have a question, though. How did you wire that first chicks beak, and, stupid question maybe, but can it eat with the wire on? Do you expect the beak to grow normally now that it has the wire to 'train it' ?

 

[teach1rusl]

Quote:
I was kind of wondering the same thing, so I'm glad you asked.

 

[lemurchaser]

So the wire is glued to the top beak to just line up the bottom beak. It theoretically can eat (it can open its mouth just fine), but I'm watching carefully. It's only two days old right now, so I figured if it didn't eat, I can always clip it off and no harm done (it still is living off the yolk). I don't think it will need to be on long, once the muscles line up right and the beak wears right, it should be good. It wasn't that far off to begin with. It's a chick with lots of problems, the wry beak, a small eye on one side that appears blind, and it's not very strong. So I'm not convinced its going to live in the 1st place. But I figured the best time to fix a beak was when their beaks were still malleable and before it got used to it being crooked. Once those muscles get strong it would be so much harder to correct (I imagine).

 

[Kansaseq]

Thanks, Lemur. Please let us know if the chick is able to eat with the wire on. I'm curious to know how it does. I haven't experienced any deformities YET (

), so it's good to know about possible ways to help them, should I encounter them.

 

[momof2monkeys]

wow. Those babies are sure lucky to have you! They all look adorable!!! I especially like L'il Bit. I picked out the runt from a hatch at my friend house and he turned out to be the biggest roo in the whole group! Good luck with the cuties!

 

[usschicago1]

cute